For a region known as much for its farms and river views as its intellectual ferment, the Hudson Valley has become an unlikely gathering place for big-picture thinking. On April 25, the Hudson Valley Ideas Festival returns to the Rosendale Theatre for its third annual edition, bringing together writers, technologists, comedians, and cultural commentators to talk through the forces reshaping modern life.
The daylong festival was founded by New Paltz resident Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and former presidential candidate who rose to national prominence during the 2020 election cycle by arguing that automation and artificial intelligence would soon transform the economy. The idea for the festival emerged after Yang attended the Aspen Ideas Festival and wondered whether a similar gathering could exist closer to home.
The result is a deliberately eclectic lineup of thinkers and performers assembled in an intimate community theater rather than a sprawling conference center. This year’s speakers include Columbia University linguist and New York Times columnist John McWhorter, comedian and digital creator Alexis Gay, cognitive performance coach Jim Kwik, and Carnegie Mellon human–computer interaction scholar Steven Rathje.
If the speakers come from different disciplines, they circle many of the same questions: What happens to human relationships, work, and political life in a world increasingly shaped by digital technologies?
Yang describes the moment bluntly. “We’re going through the greatest technological transformation in the history of the species,” he says. Artificial intelligence, remote work, and the growing power of digital platforms are reshaping everything from labor markets to political discourse. The pace of change, he argues, is faster than many institutions—or individuals—can handle. “My friend Tristan Harris says we have Stone Age brains, medieval institutions, and godlike supercomputers in our pockets—and we’re not prepared for what that means,” Yang says.
That theme runs through Yang’s own recent work and will likely surface in his remarks at the festival. Over the past several years he has continued to warn that AI could disrupt millions of white-collar jobs, a concern that once sounded speculative but now feels increasingly immediate as companies adopt AI tools across industries.
But Yang’s response to technological upheaval is not purely technocratic. The festival’s theme this year is “Staying Human,” a phrase that reflects a deeper anxiety about what life looks like as algorithms and machines play a larger role in everyday decisions.
“I have a 13-year-old son who believes he’s more likely to have an AI girlfriend than a human girlfriend,” Yang says, not joking. “That’s the kind of thing parents actually have to talk about now.”
If the conversation sounds weighty, the setting remains distinctly local. The Rosendale Theater, a nonprofit community cinema and performance venue on Main Street, offers a scale more akin to a town-hall gathering than a global conference. The day unfolds in two sessions—morning and afternoon—each featuring talks and conversations with the invited speakers.
For Yang, the smaller setting is intentional. Large societal shifts often feel abstract, but meaningful responses begin in human-scale environments—in conversations between neighbors, in classrooms, and in community spaces where ideas can be tested in real time. “People ask me all the time what individuals can do,” Yang says. His answer is disarmingly simple: Strengthen the communities closest at hand. “Put down your phone, go outside, call your mom, be good to your friends and neighbors,” he says. “If there’s a rising tide of disruption, the right answer is to strengthen your boat and the people in it.”
In that sense, the Hudson Valley Ideas Festival serves as both a forum and an experiment—an attempt to bring a cross-section of thinkers into the same room and see what happens when ideas move from the abstract into conversation. For a day in Rosendale, at least, the future becomes something to talk through together.
This article appears in April 2026.
